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Biggles Sweeps the Desert/plot
Chapter 1: Desert Rendezvous Biggles arrives at Salima Oasis with 5 other pilots, Algy, Ginger, Bertie, Tex and Tug. He briefs them on their secret mission: which is to protect the vital air transport route from West Africa to Egypt which passed over their oasis. Something or someone was interfering and 7 aircraf thad disappeared without trace already. Their job was to find out what was behind this and put a stop to it. Chapter 2: Desert Patrol A message arrives reporting that a De Havilland Dragon carrying a VIP French general had departed West Africa enroute for Egypt. Biggles takes off with Ginger to meet it but it does not show up. Heading for home, Biggles notes that the terrain he is flying over seems different although he has maintained the same compass course. Fortunately, by flying high, he spots a caravan road and then Salima. After landing, Biggles surmises that the enemy was sending out a magnetic beam to interefere with aircraft compasses Chapter 3: What Happened to Ginger Meanwhile Ginger is overdue. Like Biggles, he had also been led off course. He soon spots some reflection from glass on the ground and lands to investigate. It turns out to be a crashed De Havilland Dragon Rapide. Looking up he sees three Me 109s forcing down a Dragon. He climbs so rocks to get a better view but gets hopelessly lost. Without water, he soon collapses from thirst. Chapter 4: Shadows in the Night Fortunately, Biggles finds Ginger and revives him. In the darkness, they decide to head for the crash site of the Dragon to investigate. They spot Hauptmann Rudolf von Zoyton and an Italian officer Pallini with a Toureg caravan leading some prisoners away. Chapter 5: The Decoy Biggles decides to take offensive action and dresses up a Whitley aircraft as a transport decoy strongly protected by his Spitfires. This comes off brilliantly and three enemy fighters are shot down. One German pilot, Heinrich Hymann is taken prisoner. Chapter 6: Biggles Strikes Again Biggles plans a second strike, again, using the Whitley as decoy loaded with a heavily armed team of men. After the Germans think they had shot it down, the men would hide and then ambush the German ground units which they usually sent out to the crash site to collect prisoners. The plan works smoothly at first. Three Me-109s appear and the Whitley, after evading frantically, puts down on the ground. But then thinge go wrong when von Zoyton decides to shoot up the Whitley. Then a Spitfire mysteriously appears overhead--it is Ginger's aircraft. Von Zoyton spots it and shoots it down to everyone's dismay. Von Zoyton lands to investigate. They capture von Zoyton, but their link to Salima, the Whitley, has been destroyed. Chapter 7: Events at the Oasis Biggles decides to take von Zoyton's Me-109 back to Salima to get help. On the way he decides to take a look at the enemy's base, which he soon spots at Wadi Umbo. Unfortunaely he bumps into Ginger in a Spitfire. Not wanting to return fire, he gets shot down by Ginger It turns out the Spitfire which they saw being shot down was not flown by Ginger after all, but by Heinrich Hymann who had broken his parole and stolen the aircraft to escape. Ginger had used another Spitfire to pursue him to Wadi Umbo where he met Biggles. Ginger lands at the crashed Whitley to learn the full extent of the disaster. Biggles had been shot down and was certainly a prisoner at the enemy base. Meanwhile a large contingent of 666 Squadron pilots were stranded in the desert with one Spitfire as their only link. Chapter 8: A Desparate Venture Things imporve slightly when an armoured car approaches. The 666 Sqn pilots capture it and now Ginger decides that they should use it to rescue Biggles while sending Ferocity Ferris in the Spitfire back to Salima to report. The armoured car is driven to Wadi Umbo where Ginger, Bertie and Taffy rescue Biggles. They also bring out the French general and promise to come back for the others. Chapter 9: A Perilous Passage Biggles and co. now desparately escape from the enemy base, pursued and bombed by enemy aircraft. They make it to the Whitley site where the other pilots are waiting. Now comes a second wave of air attack which creates such chaos that von Zoyton and the other German prisoners (from the armoured car) seize the opportunity to escape. Chapter 10: The Haboob Driving back to Salima, Biggles spots signs of an impending haboob or massive sandstorm. Biggles signals Wadi Umbo to tell them to retrieve von Zoyton and the other Germans who were still out in the desert after their escape. The courtesy is returned when, after the armoured car becomes stranded in a pile of sand, von Zoyton signals that a reserve water tank may be found at the rear of the vehicle. Chapter 11: Happenings at Salima Biggles reaches Salima and learns that the place had been spotted by one of von Zoyton's patrols. Since secrecy no longer mattered, he signals Angus at Karga to bring the Defiant over. With the Defiant, Biggles sends General Demaurice off to safety. Chapter 12: The Enemy Strikes Again A strong force of von Zoyton's aircraft attack Salima again. Biggles, Bertie and Tex fly the remaining Spitfires and successfully beat them off. Angus returns in the Defiant to join in towards the end. Chapter 13: Biggles Takes His Turn Biggles now plans to strike Wadi Umbo immediately. The mission is made all the more urgent because an important transport flight is due the next day and he needs to knock Wadi Umbo out before then. Chapter 14: The Storm Breaks Algy flies Biggles and Ginger who parachute into Wadi Umbo. Bertie and Tug create a diversionary attack with their Spitfires. Using the chaos thus created, Biggles and Ginger free the prisoners. Biggles had earler spotted a Dragon Rapide at Wadi Umbo, probably captured early. Biggles asks Freddie Gillson, one of the prisoners and a B.O.A.C. pilot to fly the Dragon Rapide with the freed prisoers back to Salima. Chapter 15: Abandoned Biggles mounts a rear guard but is hit before he can reach the Dragon Rapide. Ginger jumps off to help him and the plane departs without him. Thus abandoned, Biggles and Ginger steal two camels and attempt to escape. They are hotly pursued by Toureg tribesmen who are about to overtake them. Fortunately the rest of the 666 Sqn pilots had been detailed to drive overland in the captured armoured car towards Wadi Umbo in support. They now turn up to pick up Biggles and Ginger in the nick of time. Chapter 16: The Battle of Salima Arriving back at Salima, Biggles needs to mount a hasty defence. At Wadi Umbo, he had spotted 4 Junkers JU 52 transports with paratroops. He knows they are intended for a strike at Salima, and the paratroops could overwhelm his men. Biggles and Ginger in the last two Spitfires with Taffy and Ferocity in the Defiant put up a defence against the expected attack. They must hold out long enough until the rest of the pilots who have been flown to Karga by the Dragon Rapide return with the squadron's reserve aircraft. Biggles manages to shoot down three JU 52s. The fourth succeeds in dropping its paratroops but Biggles' men mop them up with the captured armoured car. The reserve Spitfires from Karga arrive and the German attackers withdraw. Chapter 17: The Last Round Biggles now leads his much stronger force to strike Wadi Umbo and they succeed in catching most of the enemy aircraft on the ground, as well as hitting the fuel supply, putting the base out of action for good. Von Zoyton manages to take off in the midst of the attack and engages Biggles in a 1 v 1 which, predicatably, Biggles wins. The squadron returns to Salima to see the important transport flying overhead and they know that they had succeeded in their mission. Category:Plot summaries